DoD News

News Article

Muqtada Militia Attacks U.S. Soldiers, More Weapons Found

American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, June 3, 2004  --Task Force 1st Armored Division soldiers were attacked today during a search of a school near Kufa, suspected site of several recent mortar attacks, according to a Central Commands news release.

While approaching the school, soldiers from the 2nd Battalion, 37th Armor Regiment, were fired upon with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms, the release stated. Soldiers returned fire, killing a 'significant number' of attackers. Three soldiers were wounded, the news release said.

Soldiers from Troop F, 9th Cavalry Regiment, used the Vapor Tracer 2 earlier in May on a mission to find a suspected cache of explosives.

The Vapor Tracer 2 is now being used at checkpoints around the coalition's central Baghdad "Green Zone."

Elsewhere in Iraq, coalition forces throughout the country are continuing with rebuilding efforts.

In Ramadi, Marines paid Kharma city officials $19,000 in initial payments for projects to improve the city's infrastructure and other programs.

Improvement projects include a $21,500 project to improve electrical power distribution, a $23,500 project to install billboards and flagpoles, and $2,500 to fund clean-up initiatives.

Marines also provided $7,000 in start-up funds for a soccer and handball in Fallujah.

In Baghdad, the 5th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division , is working to repair faulty sewage facilities in the district of Rashid.

Over the next 12 to 18 months, the team plans to help the people of the district to overhaul the neglected sewage system there.

The plan calls for building new sewer lines to areas that never had service. In these areas, raw sewage currently runs from homes into open canals that pass through the center of town.

According to the news statement, the Coalition Provisional Authority has approved $40 million for the project. Iraqi contractors will do most of the work with oversight from the combat team and an American contractor, the release stated.

In addition, the unit is working on projects to solve the area's lack of trash- collection facilities, and will contract local Iraqi companies to clean manholes, fix broken lines and get substations running at 100 percent capacity.